Of all of the greatest hits collections I've seen, this is, by far, the best one available in the marketplace. "Essential, Volume One" covers Dolly's career just after the "Here You Come Again" era began, pushes you through to the end of her stay with the RCA label, and reminds us of the greatness of her songwriting with the closing song, "I Will Always Love You." Although just one collection from Dolly will never be enough, this one is solid end-to-end and for an enthusiastic fan with no other recordings this is "essential." Complement this with the "Super Hits" and "Here You Come Again" recordings for that well-rounded collection of Dolly.

One thing here that is for certain: success speaks for itself. Though the majority of critics write off this period of Dolly's career, they forget that Dolly Parton became a household name with songs like "Here You Come Again", "9 To 5", "Two Doors Down" and "Islands In The Stream". This was an album I had waited a long time for as I had trekked to Nashville to purchase the long lost "Great Balls Of Fire" LP just to get a copy of her 1979 #1 smash "You're The Only One" back in 1993.

Certain things about this album were a disappointment. First, several songs on this album were remixes of the original songs-the worst being a solo version of "Real Love" as well as "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind", "Don't Call It Love" and "Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You" which spoiled an otherwise perfect collection-thus not a five-star compilation. Still, several previously unavailable songs were finally on CD on this first of two long awaited collections including the top ten country hits "Single Women" and "Heartbreak Express" (from "Heartbreak Express"), "You're The Only One" (#1 for 2 weeks) and "Sweet Summer Lovin" (from "Great Balls of Fire"), "God Won't Get You" (from the Rhinestone Soundtrack) and the Donna Summer penned "Starting Over Again" (#1 ; from "Dolly, Dolly, Dolly").

No doubt, a career as expansive by such a talented singer as Dolly Parton could never be compiled in just one CD, but to write off anything she did after breaking away from Porter Wagoner as just pop-flavored garbage is an insult to true fans. Dolly truly has a unique sound that nobody can even begin to match and the majority of songs featured on this album are among some of her best including the stunning remake of Kenny Rogers & The First Edition's hit "But You Know I Love You".

Some things to remember about the anthology is that two major Dolly hits were remakes of other artists' work including "Two Doors Down" (written by Dolly but originally a top ten country hit for Zella Lehr) and "Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You", originally a #14 country hit for Joe Sun in 1978.

So don't be led into believing this is not worth it-over 20 years of number one hits as well as two #1 pop hits will ever prove the critics wrong. She is by far the best female vocalist Nashville has ever had. Take this from someone who did NOT grow up on Porter and Dolly.

Most of these songs have been well anthologized elsewhere. What we need, in short of actual reissues of DOlly's early, pre Hollywood/pop sellout, is a first rate collection of stunning early songs like "Down From Dover," "Gypsy Joe and Me" "My Tennessee Mountain Boy," "In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)," "Just The Way I Am" etc.

Volume 2 in this series helps with this problem a bit, but does not go nearly far enough. For now it will have to do, but by and large, Volume 1 only emphasis the need for a more representative collection. Get Volume 2 and avoid Volume 1. This may be the only way we can correct this continued oversight.

Essential Dolly Parton Vol I: I Will Always Love You is a great collection, filled with 20 tracks, over 70 minutes, of some of Dolly's biggest hits. This album concentrates mainly on her pop hits like 9 to 5, Starting Over Again, Think About Love, Tie Our Love In A Double Knot, Real Love, Islands In The Stream (With Kenny Rogers), All I Can Do, Single Women and much more. If you are looking for her country hits, try Vol II of The Essential Series. Must have for any fan.

Some country fans do not like Dolly's Hollywood recordings, and regard this as her sell-out period. While I generally prefer her more country recordings (which are still under-represented on CD, though things are improving slowly), my very first Dolly album was Here you come again. This was her first Hollywood album and it is still among my favorite Dolly albums of all time.

So, I enjoy her Hollywood music (with a few exceptions, none of which made it on to this CD). This CD includes eighteen of her most successful hits from 1979 to 1986 (about half of them were #1 country hits, while two of them were also #1 pop hits), plus two earlier tracks.

The oldest track here is To Daddy, which Dolly wrote and recorded for her All I can do album of 1976. Emmylou heard the album before it was got ready for release and immediately recorded To Daddy. Dolly was so impressed by Emmylou's cover that she dropped it from the album and included another song instead. Dolly eventually had a hit with a live version of the song on Columbia (to be found on her Heartsongs album and two Dolly compilations on Sony). It is probably that hit which prompted RCA to include the original version here - and it's every bit as good as Emmylou's version.

Other reviewers have failed to notice another rarity here - Real love. The version included here is a solo recording. It was a #1 country hit for Dolly and Kenny singing it as a duet, and it is the duet version which is normally to be found on compilations of Dolly's music, and which appeared on the original LP.

The second oldest song here is her re-recorded version of Two doors down, one of her pop hits from the Here you come again album. (For the original version of Two doors down, you must seek out the Australian import Legendary, which I've also reviewed, and which contains a lot of the same songs.) Other tracks from Here you come again, plus some from 1978's Heartbreaker, can be found on Essential Volume 2.

The remaining tracks are taken from the albums Great balls of fire (1979), Dolly Dolly Dolly (1980), 9 to 5 and odd jobs (1981), Heartbreak express (1982), The great pretender (1984), Real love (1986), two soundtracks (Rhinestone and Best little chicken house in Texas - yes, I know it wasn't really a chicken house) and Kenny's 1983 album, Eyes that see in the dark. Sadly, Dolly's 1983 album, the wonderful Burlap and satin, is not represented at all, though several tracks have appeared on other compilations.

Some of these tracks have appeared on many Dolly compilations, but apart from To daddy and Real love, there are other tracks that don't come round too often - Sweet summer lovin', Single women and the two Rhinestone tracks (the countriest recordings here apart from To daddy and Old flames), Tennessee homesick blues and God won't get you.

Whatever you may think of this period of Dolly's career, these recordings helped to massively increase her popularity. It is possible to enjoy both these recordings and her more traditional country. I should know - I love both. And if you want all the essential RCA recordings by Dolly, you must not only buy volume 2, but also The Essential Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. That's the best of the lot !!!!